union county, iowa. bush won by seven. obama here. dauphin county, pennsylvania. juneau county, wisconsin. another very white area obama flips it by seven points. so why did we see this shift in the political middle and should this be the real source of concern for republicans going forward? right now let's bring in the bhaen hind patchwork nation. he is at the desk. it was about the middle. there was this mythology that somehow mitt romney won the middle because he won independents. >> right. >> it is completely clear it goes not the case. >> i think that is why it is important to go into these communities we used because of the way i like to think of the middle is not just independents because it is self-described. i like talking about places because places are what they are. they can't describe themselves. the numbers describe them to you. these places are moderate places. >> one thing and you want to look at this more and you'd like to lay over some census data when you get into this. i want to go to the boom towns. the boom towns were another name for the exc